A raft of amendments Thursday to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed state budget included a $7.8 million advance on payments owed years from now to the city in lieu of taxes for Empire State Plaza — money that Mayor Jerry Jennings is counting on to balance this year's books.

It is the second consecutive year that Jennings' administration has sought a so-called spin-up as he continues to lobby for more state aid to the capital city — including a new $11.7 million annual payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, on the sprawling, tax-exempt Harriman State Office Campus.

But unlike last year, the $7.8 million budget lifeline was not included in Cuomo's initial budget proposal because of what the governor's aides later called an inadvertent omission.

Inadvertent or not, the omission prompted some city lawmakers to squirm, having already approved a nearly $171 million 2013 city budget that assumes the money is on its way.

If approved by state lawmakers, the advance will increase the city's scheduled payment for the plaza this year to $22.8 million and reduce the payment owed by the state in 2031-32 to $7.2 million.

The payments were scheduled to drop to $15 million last year, but the first spin-up forestalled that decline until this year and if Jennings gets his way at least until next year.

Critics of the plan have accused Jennings' administration of robbing city coffers in future years to solve short-term problems, but Jennings' aides have countered the money is worth more to the city now that it will be in two decades and that it is an interim fix while Jennings presses the case that Albany is being shortchanged by the state when compared to other upstate cities.

One of the biggest problems, Jennings has argued, is that more than 60 percent of the city's tax base is tax-exempt, thanks in large part to state-owned property.

Jennings' administration has also noted that the advance is coming the final years of the $500 million plaza PILOT package, years that were only added when Jennings secured a massive expansion of the pact from Gov. George Pataki tied in part to the proposed downtown convention center.

Were it not for Jennings, they argue, the money would not be there to tap in the first place. Under the current schedule, the payments would end in the 2032-33 state budget year.

In 2010, Jennings sought a commitment for a 5-year, nearly $40 million spin-up from Gov. David Paterson and state lawmakers, but the bill never passed, forcing the mayor to request each year individually from Cuomo, with whom he has a much closer relationship.

"I think that the mayor's efforts once again yielded positive results," Jennings spokesman Bob Van Amburgh said, adding: "I think we move on from here and we work on plans for next year."

Still, the spin-up's approval by the state Legislature is not guaranteed. Last year's spin-up became a political football in 11th-hour budget negotiations, forcing Jennings to head across Eagle Street to the Capitol in the final hours of budget talks to ensure it was included in the Legislature's spending plan.

While Jennings' budget this year did not raise the city's tax levy – the total amount of money raised through taxes – it relies on the spin-up and about $4.2 million in savings to plug a structural deficit of more than $12 million.

Even without the tax levy rising, city homeowners saw their bills increase last month by about 3 percent due to the shifting values of the residential and commercial tax bases.

Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin praised Cuomo for taking the best interests of the capital city to heart.

"We always had confidence that it was going to be there," McLaughlin said of the money. "I don't believe the mayor would have put it in his budget if he didn't believe it was going to be there."